Chapter Twenty

Kate

"I'm here," Gavin announces as he comes in the back door that leads to the kitchen. I left it unlocked, knowing he'd be here soon.

I wipe my flour-covered hands on a dishtowel and give him a hug. "I'm so happy you got off early."

"It's not exactly early," he says, giving me a kiss.

"I know, but you know what I mean. Compared to midnight, this is early."

I'd like to talk to him about that, but not now. It could start a fight and I don't have time to fight. And I don't want to. I hate fighting with Gavin, although I like the making up part.

"I can't make any promises," he says, "but I think the late nights are over."

"Why? What changed?"

"I figured out I'm doing too much myself, so I started asking other people to help me out. So far it's working. We'll see if it continues." He smiles as he rubs his thumb over my cheek. "You're covered in flour."

"I am?" I try to wipe my face but he takes my hand and sets it back down by my side.

"Leave it." He kisses me. "I like it."

I smile. "You like me covered in flour?"

"Or covered in nothing at all." He kisses me and his hand wanders to my backside and gives it a squeeze.

"Gavin, not here," I whisper.

"Let's go in your office."

I sigh in pleasure as he kisses my neck. "I want to but..."

"We'll lock the door." He pulls my body against his and whispers in my ear, "I want you, Kate. I need you so bad."

It turns me on when he tells me that. And the way he's touching me? I'm tempted to do it right here in the kitchen.

Someone rings the back doorbell and I pull away. "The plumber."

Gavin sighs. "He has terrible timing."

I smile. "This was when he was supposed to show up. He's right on time."

"Can I pay him to go away and come back later?"

"He's already doing me a favor showing up here after hours." I give Gavin a kiss. "I'll be right back."

After letting the plumber in, I take Gavin to my office but leave the door open in case the plumber has questions.

"Can I close the door?" Gavin asks.

"We're not doing it," I tell him. "Not with the plumber just a few feet away."

"That's not why I wanted to close the door. I need to tell you something."

"What do you need to tell me?"

He closes the door, then takes something out of this pocket.

"What's that?" I move closer to him and see he's holding a tube of lipstick. What the hell? Is he trying to tell me he has someone else? I know Gavin would never cheat and yet seeing this lipstick is making my chest tight. "Why do you have lipstick?"

"I found it," he says as he sets some takeout menus on the desk. "It was in a drawer at my dad's apartment. All this stuff was." He sets a pair of earrings down next to the lipstick.

"Your dad had an apartment?"

"Yeah." He folds his arms and leans against the desk. "Remember that key I found? It's for an apartment in SoHo."

"How'd you figure that out?"

"I went to one of the Kendal properties near my office and the doorman told me. I didn't know which apartment was my dad's was but I figured it out."

"Was anyone there?"

"No. The place was empty, which doesn't make sense. With my dad gone, who's paying for it? And why hasn't it been rented to someone else? Anyway, I searched the place and this was the only stuff I found."

I pick up one of the earrings. "Are these real?"

"I'm pretty sure they are. My dad wouldn't buy a woman fake diamonds."

"So you know for sure he was cheating on your mom." I set the earring down. "I'm sorry."

He shrugs. "I kind of already knew. This just confirmed it. But I have no idea who she is. I was hoping this stuff would give me some clues."

"Do you really want to know who she is?"

"Yeah. I want to talk to her and find out what she knows about my dad. If he was living some kind of secret life, I want to know why."

Gavin can't be doing this. He can't start digging for information about his dad. If he does, he risks finding out about that secret group, which could put us both in danger.

"He was having an affair," I say. "That was his secret life. There's nothing else that woman can tell you. I doubt she'd even talk to you."

"Maybe not, but I still want to try. My dad was doing more than having an affair. Remember all those guns I found in his trunk last year? There had to be a reason why he had all those."

"But why does it matter now? He's gone. And do you really want to find out stuff about him that may turn out to be bad? Don't you want to remember him for all the good things he's done? For being a good father?"

"Yes, but I still want to know what he was up to. I have to at least try to find out."

"This stuff doesn't tell you anything about the woman he was seeing," I say. "Earrings? Lipstick? Any woman could have those things."

"I know, but it was all I could find at the apartment. And maybe there's a clue in there I'm just not seeing."

"Like this?" I hold up a menu from a Thai place. There's handwriting on the back. Someone wrote, Make sure to get brown rice, not white.

"Let me see that." Gavin takes the menu and studies the handwriting. "My dad didn't write this. It was her. I wonder if there's a way to find someone based on handwriting."

"There isn't. I asked my dad about that once and he said it's not possible. He said there'd have to be a database to match it up to. If you thought it was someone you knew, you could compare this handwriting to something they wrote and find out, but in this case, that's not possible."

"Maybe it is someone I know. Maybe it's someone my dad used to work with on the campaign."

"Does the handwriting look familiar at all?"

"No." He sets the menu down.

I pick it up and look closer at the handwriting. "It does to me."

"What are you talking about?"

"The handwriting. It looks familiar."

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah." I look at him. "I wonder if I saw this handwriting at a party I catered."

"Why would you see someone's handwriting?"

"Sometimes people would scribble down their name and number to give to someone at the party and they'd use my tray to write on. Or they'd sign a guest book at an event. It's possible that's why this looks familiar, but I have no idea who the handwriting belongs to."

"If that's true, then this woman is someone my parents know. It could even be one of my mom's friends."

"It's possible."

"If that were true, my mom would be devastated. It's bad enough my dad cheated, but if he did it with one of her friends..."

"You're not going to tell your mom, are you? About the affair?"

"No, but I'm worried she'll find out. If it was someone she knows, chances are someone will tell her eventually."

"Maybe nobody knew. Maybe your dad hid it well and so did this woman."

"Or maybe it wasn't someone he knew. Maybe it was some woman he met at a bar and ended up having an affair with."

"Could be," I say, but honestly, I think it was someone Niles knew. And someone he trusted. He had too much at stake to trust some random woman he met at a bar.

Gavin's phone rings and he checks it. "Speaking of my mom." He puts the phone to his ear. "Hey, Mom, what's up?" He nods, then looks at me and puts the phone on speaker. "So you're going out with Craig tonight?"

I roll my eyes. I can't believe she's dating my dad. And why are they going out tonight? I thought their next date was Saturday?

"We're going to dinner, then the opera," Celeste says.

The opera? My dad has never been to the opera. I haven't either. I don't even know what you wear to the opera, and if I don't, then my dad definitely doesn't. He doesn't like having to dress up so I can't believe he'd agree to this.

"So is that why you called?" Gavin asks. "To tell me about your date?"

"I called because I want you to babysit your grandfather while I'm out tonight. The other night he had not one, but TWO women over to the house! It was simply disgraceful!"

I cover my mouth to hide my laughter. Gavin is smiling.

"Gramps really had two women in his room? At the same time?"

"Not in his room! He had them over for dinner, which is bad enough. And then they had drinks and became obnoxiously loud."

"He just had some company over. It's not that big a deal."

"If your grandfather wants to entertain multiple women, he can do it at his own house, not mine. And I don't want him doing it again tonight, which is why I need you to come over and keep an eye on him."

"I'm not babysitting Gramps. He's a grown man. He can do what he wants. If he were trashing the house, that's one thing, but having people over? I don't think that's a problem."

She huffs. "He talked to you, didn't he? That's why you're taking his side?"

"Mom, I'm not getting in the middle of this, and no, he didn't talk to me."

"Call Kate and find out if he's still working. Have her ask him what he's doing tonight. He won't pick up my calls."

"I'm at the restaurant right now and I don't think he's here." Gavin looks at me to confirm.

I shake my head. Henry left an hour ago.

"No, he's not here," Gavin says. "He's probably on a date with one of the women from last night. He probably won't be home until late."

"He better not bring that woman here. I won't allow it! This is my home, not a brothel!"

Gavin's trying not to laugh. "I'm sure he'll behave. Mom, I have to go. Have a good time on your—" He stops before he says 'date'. He knows I'm trying to remain in denial that those two are dating. I'd prefer to think they're just friends. "Enjoy the opera," he says. "We'll talk later."

She says goodbye and he sets his phone down.

"They couldn't wait until Saturday to see each other again?" I say. "That's not good. It means my dad really likes her."

"Or it means my mom needed someone to go to the opera with so she called up your dad."

"My dad wouldn't agree to it if he didn't like her. And he wouldn't agree to go to the opera. He'll probably fall asleep there."

"Maybe he's lonely. He hasn't dated anyone for almost a year. Maybe he needs—" He stops and clears his throat. "Never mind."

"Sex? Were you going to say sex?"

Gavin doesn't answer, but I know that's what he meant.

I shudder at the thought. "That better not be what this is about. My dad can get his...needs...met elsewhere. There are plenty of single women around. I'd rather have him do it with my mom than Celeste."

Just then my mom calls. I hold up the phone. "I swear our parents know when we're talking about them." I answer the call. "Hey, Mom."

"Hi, honey. Still at the restaurant?"

"Yeah. Gavin is here. I'm testing the meatballs one last time. We're having them for dinner. You can come join us if you want."

"Actually I was thinking of seeing if your father would like to go out. We haven't had a chance yet to have dinner together and since he's letting me stay at his apartment, I figured the least I could do is buy him dinner."

She wants to have dinner with my dad? Like on a date?

"I think Dad's busy tonight," I say. "I think he has to work late."

"He didn't mention that when I saw him this morning. When did you talk to him?"

"I didn't, but I know he's been really busy at work so I assume he'll be staying late at the office tonight."

"Honey, if this bothers you, just tell me. But before you say anything, I need to make it clear that I'm not trying to date your father. I just enjoy spending time with him and I don't think there's anything wrong with us going out for dinner."

"You're right. There's not. And I wasn't implying you shouldn't go out with him. I just—"

This is hard. I don't want to tell her about Celeste. My mom may say she doesn't want to date my dad, but her tone and the way she's been acting tell a different story.

"What?" my mom says. "What were you going to say?"

I look at Gavin. "I lied. Dad's not working tonight. He's going out with Celeste."

"Oh." She sounds disappointed. Really disappointed. If she only saw my dad as a friend, she wouldn't sound that disappointed.

"I don't think it's anything serious. They're just hanging out. In fact, for all I know, it could be a business meeting."

"Where are they going? Do you know?"

"They're going to dinner." I pause. "And the opera."

"The opera," she repeats softly. "I can't imagine your dad at the opera. But maybe he's changed."

"He hasn't. I think Celeste just needed someone to go with so he agreed to it, just to be nice."

"Kate, you don't have to make excuses for your father. If he wants to date Celeste, that's fine."

"He doesn't. I mean, I don't really know what he wants but I can't imagine it being Celeste." I glance at Gavin. "Not that there's anything wrong with Celeste. It's just she's not really his type." I feel like I'm making this worse. "So anyway, why don't you come here for dinner? I know it's a long drive but I promise the meatballs will be good."

"I'm sure they will but I think I'll stay in tonight. There's a good Thai place down the corner I'd like to try. Carol mentioned it at lunch today."

When she says the name, I almost drop the phone.

Carol. That's who it belonged to. When I recognized the handwriting on the Thai menu, it's because it was Carol's. Working for her, I've seen her handwriting many times, signing off on orders and deliveries, writing notes.

"Honey, are you still there?"

"Um, yeah." I feel a hand on my shoulder and see Gavin in front of me, a concerned look on his face. "Mom, I should go. I have a lot to do."

"Okay, we'll talk later. Love you!"

"Love you too." I slowly lower the phone and set it on the desk.

"What's wrong?" Gavin asks.

"It can't be her," I mutter, staring at the floor.

"What? Who are we talking about?"

"Carol." I look at Gavin. "It can't be her."

"I don't know what you're telling me. Is this about something your mom said?"

"No. I mean, kind of. She said Carol recommended a Thai restaurant and that she might go there for dinner."

"Yeah? So?"

"The handwriting on the menu. I think it belonged to Carol." I pause. "I think your dad was having an affair with Carol."